


Obverse, Reverse

by EllieMurasaki



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Community: spn_bitesized, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-20
Updated: 2010-07-20
Packaged: 2017-10-10 16:39:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/101861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieMurasaki/pseuds/EllieMurasaki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tradition holds that the gift of a knife severs the relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Obverse, Reverse

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scintilla10](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scintilla10/gifts).



Sam's unpacking his backpack, listening to Zach go on and on about the proper arrangement of his posters for maximum aesthetic value (they're all of partially clothed women, so surely just not overlapping the posters suffices?), marveling at the idea that soon Sam will have more possessions than he can reasonably fit in a backpack or even a car, when he finds the knife.

It's the sort of thing Dean might, probably does, call a claw of death. It's got a pointy bit on either side of the handle, so weapons laws think it's a _suan ywe gou_, though Sam isn't sure what language that is, never mind what transliteration system, so 'claw of death' is easier to say. It looks pure iron, though he'd have to check that. It's illegal on campus, no question about that. (Sam stops unpacking. He'll have to find somewhere to hide it once Zach is out of the room.)

It's not one of Sam's personal weapons, none of which he brought anyway; see also, illegal on campus. It's not Dad's or Dean's on loan, nor is it common property. Sam has, in fact, never seen it before.

So one of them got him a going-away present and didn't think to tell him.

It might be a symbol. You walk away from us, I cut ties with you. From Dad—_don't you ever come back_—that would make sense. But it's also got its uses, offensive and defensive, so Sam can't imagine any way to read this that doesn't include _stay safe out there_. That's not something one says to someone one doesn't want to see again.

Dean, then.

Sam doesn't expect to hear from Dean for a long while. Not till Dean's figured out that it wasn't Dean that Sam was leaving. Or that if Dean didn't want Sam to go to college then maybe Dean should have been a bit less encouraging about Sam's scholastic pursuits. But after that—

Sam doesn't want to lose his brother.

When Sam goes to buy his textbooks, he spends some time wandering the bookstore. There's postcards of Palo Alto, but those aren't useful for sending anything other than words and sketches. Sam buys one anyway and writes _Wish you were here_ on the left and tapes a dime to the right; dimes are lightest, and postage is by weight. Sam sketches the knife next to the coin, just in case it isn't clear. Then an envelope big enough to hold the postcard, addressed to DW at a dropbox in Montana they check fairly often, and off to the post office.

The next time Sam hears from Dean, he's a sophomore and Dean's taken a beating from a ghost three counties north that Sam was considering dealing with himself. (Dad's perfectly fine with abandoning his oldest for a week while Dean's leg heals, apparently, and Dean just doesn't want to pay for a motel room.) The time after that, he's a senior and it's Halloween.

Sometime after Dean goes to hell, it occurs to Sam that they haven't checked any of the old dropboxes in a while. Ruby sulks when Sam decides to do the rounds, but it's not like there's any identifiable demon signs anywhere in the country except where Ruby is, so no harm done.

In Montana, Sam finds an envelope postmarked August 2002, containing a postcard with the Memorial Church on one side, _Wish you were here_ and a dime on the other. Sam fucks Ruby the moment they're back at the motel, because the other option is thinking about Dean.


End file.
